If you would like to see the game in action and hear my running commentary, check out this video. If you just want to read my thoughts in written form keep scrolling. The written version is far more coherent, since I wasn't being shot at the whole time!

Foxhole is a new game just released to Steam early access that allows you to jump into a persistent online battlefield with up to 119 other players and duke it out in a large scale war in a WW1/WW2 setting. This game has more to it than just that, however. Players spawn into the game with only a pistol, 16 rounds of ammo, and a hammer. You may be thinking, what good is a hammer in shootout? Well, in this game, it's one of the most important items on the battlefield. If you want to get your hands on anything other than that pistol, you or someone on your team will need to get to work gathering resources and turning them into weapons of war.

The map is littered with villages and resource nodes for the two teams to fight over. Once a team secures a resource node, players can begin "mining" those resource points to gather raw materials. Those materials are then taken to a refinery to be refined, and then those refined materials can be used at a weapons factory to produce rifles, machine guns, and so on, as well as the various types of ammunition for them. Binoculars, trucks, grenades, and everything else must be produced in this way. Defensive structures like barbed wire, sandbags, and foxholes can also be constructed using these resources. Finally, that equipment must be picked up by other players or hauled to those at the front. Trucks can be built to transport finished goods to the combat troops, or used to speed up the transport of raw and refined materials back home. This means that in order for a team to really succeed, they will need at least a few players dedicated to this process. I'm not entirely sure that I would enjoy playing this part of the game for more than short sessions at a time, but it is fun to know you are helping equip your fellow players with good weapons and ammo. Your efforts have a real tangible effect on the game, which is more than the crafting in most games can say.

Communication is another key to success in this game. Looking at the map, you can only see which towns are controlled by which team, and your current location. You cannot see friendly or enemy players at all. The only way to know what is going on is to communicate with your team. The chat box will usually be a constant stream of requests for supplies and reinforcements at critical points in the field. You can also use voice chat to talk to other players near you. While this can be off-putting right at first, since you can feel very lost and alone, it quickly became one of my favorite things about the game. I often hear it said that the average soldier on a battlefield only knows what is happening in his immediate area. He has no way of knowing what is going on elsewhere or even who is winning the battle. That is very much the case here, since you can only see a short distance around you. Enemy and even friendly players are only visible if you have direct line of sight to them. At night this viewing distance shrinks even more. Strong communication from your team is needed for everyone to get a clearer picture of the overall battle.

The actual combat is tense and chaotic. The mechanics of shooting are simple enough, just aim at the enemy and shoot, but it's complicated by a few things. First, as discussed, strong manufacturing efforts back at HQ make a huge difference here, since the basic pistol or even rifle will leave you hopelessly outmatched if the enemy has machine guns and SMG's. Not to mention how the amount of ammunition available to you changes how willing you are to use suppressing fire freely or be stuck conserving rounds. Second, visibility is limited to what you can actually see. Often the firefights turn into blind shootouts with each side returning fire at where they think the enemy just shot from. Fire too soon and you give away your position. Fire too late and you may find yourself overrun. The latest Dev Blog shows off some bayonet action, which looks to be very effective if you can catch the enemy off-guard.

Taking all of this together, Foxhole is a game which many players may bounce off of at first, but it looks to have a very rewarding gameplay loop for those with the patience to learn how to the game world works and begin to manipulate it.  Materials must be gathered, supplies must be brought to the front. Trucks carrying those supplies must stick to the roads. So, let's say your team is trying to capture a village but the enemy won't budge. Instead of hammering away endlessly, you might gather up an organized squad and slip past the enemy to cut off their supply lines. Just as in real life, setting up a roadblock at a key crossroads could starve the enemy at the front of ammunition and the resource needed to even respawn there, allowing your fellow troops to overrun their position. The game offers a lot of these opportunities to use real tactics to defeat the enemy. Patrols and reconnaissance are needed to gauge the enemy presence in an area. An armored offensive is possible, but a concentration of effort and resources is needed to build and fuel such vehicles.  Not to mention organizing a unit of infantry to support them, and hold any ground taken.

Currently the game lets 120 people play on each server. There are several different maps that make up the overall game world. The hope of the developer is to eventually link all of these maps and servers together, so that hundreds or perhaps thousands of players are on one seamless battlefield simultaneously. This is an ambitious goal, but I am eager to see them reach it. Such a scale would really open the game up to strategic and operational levels of play. Organized groups of players and clans could coordinate large scale offensives and fight battles that last days or weeks. 

This is still the alpha version of the game, so there is much work yet to be done in all areas. That said, the game runs perfectly fine already. I've only played a few hours, but did not run into any bugs or crashes.

Foxhole is available on Steam early access, and you can find the official website right here: http://www.foxholegame.com/

- Joe Beard

Once upon a time there were only a couple of Warhammer 40k games for PC, and there was much lamenting this fact, until one day the winds changed, and 40k games of various quality began springing up like Orks. Some of these new games were decent enough, while others were a bit of a mess. One thing is for certain, developers were forced to pair the theme of 40k with all sorts of interesting mechanics, simply to stand apart from the crowd. 

Into this crowded field of combatants steps Warhammer 40k: Space Wolf, a game which pairs the turn based tactical combat of XCOM with the deck building mechanics of Hearthstone.  Individual Space Marines travel about on a grid facing off against Chaos Marines and other heretics. Your Marines each have a deck of cards which are drawn from to form your "hand" of options. The cards can be played to attack, move, or activate some other ability. Once you play a card it's gone, so you have to balance what you need now with what you may want to do in the future. While this may seem odd to some, this card driven combat actually works quite well, and is even addicting. Completing scenarios and optional objectives will unlock more cards for you to use in your decks. There is also a light RPG system of leveling up the characters in your squad, allowing you to unlock various perks for each one. 

The cards represent all the different weapons you would expect to find on a 40k battlefield. Bolters of all types, melta guns, flamers, explosives, and various combination weapons. There are also the ever grisly melee weapons like chainswords, axes, power fists, spears, and more. For any given weapon, there are a variety of different cards which represent it, some with better stats and even extra abilities, like letting you draw another card when they are played. One important stat on every card is the "effort" value, which ties into the initiative system. Basically, using cards will increase your effort level for that character, then over time that number will decrease, and this constantly shifting value determines the dynamic turn order. Using the really cool and powerful cards will increase the number faster, which means an enemy using lighter attacks may get to go twice before you character acts again. Balancing this number is a critical part of the gameplay, as enemy units often out number yours considerably, and edging them out in turn order can be the difference between victory and annihilation. 

Some cards can also let you (and the forces of Chaos) pull off combo moves that will give some kind of bonus. These often have a requirement such as attacking an enemy from a specific range, or using a melee weapon, before they activate. Firing off these combos will help you be more efficient, which is important because the enemy squads will keep coming at you with no mercy during most missions. 

Another type of card is one that can be "equipped" on your character. These often give you an overwatch ability that can fire during the enemy's turn. Unlike most cards, these equipped cards stay around and can be "reloaded" by sacrificing certain other cards from your hand.

Each scenario gives you some sort of task, such as reaching a certain point on the map and defeating an enemy, saving a comrade, or simply holding out against waves of attackers. There are also optional objectives you can try to complete to earn bonuses. I was surprised to find myself playing the same mission several times over, trying to get the optimal outcome. The scenarios typically have your Marines facing a ton of enemies that spawn in at the most inopportune moments. This creates a challenge certainly, but can sometimes feel cheap, since you really have no idea when or where they will arrive. You may survive the fight the first time around, but will likely be unable to complete the bonus objectives until playing through again with a bit of foreknowledge about where and when attacks will come. 

To get the most out of your squad for a particular scenario, you may need to go back to the barracks and tweak your team. This includes changing up the cards in your deck, and switching out different perks for each squad member. You can invest a limited number of points in unlocking more perks for a given marine, or your primary character. You can also choose to send your main man into battle with a different armored suit. Scout, tactical (the standard), and terminator options are available. Each comes with advantages and disadvantages, and unique options in terms of cards, which will change up your strategy quite a bit. The scout armor, for example, has lighter defenses, but can move quickly and use sniper rifles.

Burning more than one enemy with the flamer is always satisfying.

Outside of missions, you can also spend resources to craft new cards and try to get better versions of each one. Much like other collectible card games, there's a drive to collect all of the "legendary" cards that will really beef up your deck. I've only tinkered with that area of things, so I'll save more details for my review in the future. Likewise, the game does have multiplayer, but I have not dipped my toe in that pool of chaos just yet.


I'll talk a bit about the graphics and sound for a moment. While the visuals are not going to blow anyone away, as this was originally a mobile game, they serve their purpose well enough. The animations are nicely done in particular, with especially meaty melee attacks that send blood flying. The sound effects are pleasing as well, better than I expected going in. I really enjoyed the music that I have heard so far. It's quite a moody and matches the grim dark tone.

You might have noticed that I mentioned this was originally a mobile game. Don't start backing away! The developers are well aware of the stigma that many such cross-platform games face, and they are deliberately setting out to make this version of the game take full advantage of being on PC. Obviously, the fact that they are taking their time developing the game for the next several months, instead of just shoving a port onto Windows and calling it good, speaks volumes on its own. They are accepting feedback from players, and want to make this the best version of the game out there.

While this game is still in very early access (I think I started at version 0.0.2 and it's now at 0.0.6), there is certainly enough solid gameplay here for anyone looking for some more WH 40k gaming. The combination of card driven actions and tactical turn based movement works better than anyone might expect. The game only costs $12 at the moment, so if you are at all interested you won't be risking much by giving it a shot. If you have your doubts, just keep an eye on the steady stream of updates coming from the developers. This week they made some big changes with weapon balancing, which I was playing with right before this review. This update alone increased my enjoyment of the gameplay quite a bit, since it made melee weapons a lot easier to engage with. 

I look forward to seeing how this game shapes up over the course of the year. The planned release date is sometime in Q4 of 2017.

Developer: HeroCraft
http://www.spacewolfgame.com

- Joe Beard

Wartile, developed by Playwood Project and recently released into Early Access on Steam, is a game not quite like anything I have played before. The fresh take on tactical RPG combat has you moving detailed figurines of various Viking warriors around a static, yet beautiful diorama battlefield. The deliberate effect is to give the feel of playing a board game, with all the advantages of being a digital game. 

Combat takes place in real time, but each figure can only be moved once every three seconds or so. Standard attacks are made automatically once an enemy is in range, while special abilities can be activated by dragging the relevant card from the player's "hand" onto the target. This design creates a sort of controlled frenzy, where the player only needs to take a couple of simple actions every few seconds, but must be constantly thinking ahead. Positioning of units makes all the difference, with relative height, flanking attacks, and leveraging the terrain in your favor all factoring in to making sure your fighters prevail.

Each fighter under your control belongs to a particular class. There are damage dealers, shield bearing tanks, spearmen who can attack from two spaces away, and more to come. Putting each figure in the appropriate place is critical to keeping them alive, as you are often outnumbered. A tactic I exploited early on was holding a narrow pass with my shielded warriors, while my spearman attacked freely from range. Whenever there is room you will want to keep your men moving, getting behind enemies to get a flanking bonus to each attack. Enemy figures will keep moving as well, adding tension to the melee. 

As mentioned before, you have a hand of cards, independent of the individual characters' abilities, that let you activate special powers at any time. This deck of cards can be customized before starting a scenario, and is then dealt out randomly, two in hand at a time. Using these abilities depletes a limited supply of points, which must be recharged over the course of the battle. Early cards include healing, boosts to damage, and a trap which can placed on the map. As you complete scenarios, more cards are unlocked and can be mixed into your deck. Playing these cards at the right time, and only when needed, is another factor the player must keep in mind as a battle unfolds. 

Between scenarios the player can spend gold to purchase new figures and other things, as well as customize the figures he has. Armor and weapons can be equipped, as well as small bonuses to stats that can be swapped around as you like. Like any RPG, the further you get into the campaign, the more variety of options you have for customizing each character. You can make your figures into glass cannons, tanks, or balanced fighters. As characters level up you can add more stat bonuses, and they can be reset at any time, so you are free to try new strategies as you go.

It is certainly worth mentioning again how lovely this game looks. While the environments lack any animation, this actually works wonderfully. The whole thing has a very hand crafted feel to it, channeling those detailed battlefield dioramas you see in museums. I especially liked the crashing waves frozen in time and other cool details spread across each stage.

One thing I hope to see changed is freeing up the camera a bit more. There may have been an option I was missing, but I constantly found myself wishing I could tilt the camera more, so that I could take in beautiful landscapes from more angles.

The game also has a multiplayer mode, which I haven't tried yet, but expect will certainly force you to adopt more imaginative tactics. While the AI will give you a good challenge, it won't throw too many curveballs your way in its current state. Most of the surprises come in the form of sudden events which add new enemy figures to the board, usually in prime position to outflank your warriors.

Despite being in early access, I did not encounter any bugs or glitches during my first few hours of playing Wartile. I was happy to see that, despite the impressive visuals, the game runs perfectly smooth and loads almost instantly on my machine. There are a lot of positive things happening here, and I look forward to seeing more content added to the game over time. It's always good to see someone take a new approach to game design and aesthetic. This could have been a bog standard turn-based combat game, but instead it steps out, through visual design and game mechanics, into uncharted territory and that makes it a welcome breath of fresh air.

Official Site: http://www.wartile.com/

Available Now on Steam Early Access

- Joe Beard